Terra Nostra was an organic chocolate company that made some tasty chocolate bars! The sent me samples way back in 2008, and I would see them in Whole Foods often. Recently I haven’t see them at all, I wonder if they’re still around?

I’ve been noticing new Godiva bars on my trips to the grocery stores and pharmacies. They have an attractive rich brown color tho them and enticing macro photography on the front. On my last trip I managed to catch some of the bars on sale, so I figured new blog fodder. Plus these new bars looked so delicious! The first I’ll review is the Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel bar.

The packaging on this is really pretty, as I mentioned. The maco photography shows stacks of this bar with pieces of hard caramel crumbs. It’s very pretty and gives you a really good idea of what you’re buying and about to enjoy. The package opens easily to reveal a gold foil protecting the chocolate. I like how they keep the gold color scheme throughout the packaging.

The chocolate is a nice matte brown color, and you can see the pieces of the salted caramel flecks in it. It smells very rich and sweet and oddly enough a little salty. It feels off to describe something as smelling salty, but these does.

The milk chocolate is smooth and creamy. It’s sweet with nice flavors of cream and vanilla. The salted caramel are hard little crispy pieces in the chocolate, and they just are bursting with flavor when you encounter them. The are light and crispy, so it’s a really great textural contrast with the smooth chocolate. The flavor is just bursting with butter and cream and a saltiness that is perfect. It’s not too salty, not does it disappear around all the sweet flavors. it stands out just beautifully and compliments the chocolate so wonderfully.

This bar was really tasty. I am personally a big fan of the salt and chocolate combination. I realize it’s not for everyone, but if you’re interesting in giving it a try, I think this bar is a good place to start. It has the right balance of chocolate to caramel to salt ratio that I feel compliments all the ingredients. I really enjoyed this, and I hope to find it on sale again soon.

If you follow the Ritter Sport page on Facebook, every month or so they hold a contest for a giveaway. I was lucky enough to win one a bit ago, and I was sent this adorable little goodie bag in the mail. How nice! It came wit ha tote bag, a lanyard, and Ritter Sport chocolate bars. It was a lot nicer than I expected, and I now have a great new bag for my work lunches and sweet for my coffee in the morning. I had reviewed all the flavors that came in this gift set, except Ritter Sport Almond, so I’ll take the opportunity to do that now.

The almond bar comes in a beautiful hunter green package. Some almonds tumble down on the package front, with the description of “with almonds frown in the California sunshine”. Almonds are California’s largest export, you know! The bar smells sweet and nutty. I get notes of cream and caramel with a hint of amaretto.

The squares break off nicely despite the large pieces of almonds in here. The chocolate is creamy and smooth and the almonds are fresh and crunchy. A really nice combination. The milk chocolate is sweet with nice notes of cream, caramel and cocoa. But don’t’ let the chocolate kid you, as the almonds are the real star here. They’re fresh and crunchy wit ha wonderful nutty flavor. It’s delicious in its simplicity.

So whether you win free chocolate from Ritter (follow them on Facebook if you want to try for that opportunity) or if you buy it in stores, you really can’t go wrong. I’m continually impressed with their chocolate and the flavors are always tasty. I highly recommend ll their chocolate bars, and am super excited for the new flavors I hear will be released later this year.

Comptoir du Cacao is a French chocolate company that I discovered way back in 2006 and the New York City chocolate show. They had too many different chocolates to remember, but I did buy a box of their crispy pralines. I brought my swag home to share with my family, and to this day my Mom has never raved about anything more than the Comptoir du Cacao chocolate I brought home. I wish I knew more about the company itself, other than it is in France. Sadly their website is mostly in French, which I can’t read, so their background will have to remain a mystery to me.

Fast forward to 2011’s holiday season. My sister discovered a store in Manhattan who recently began selling Comptoir du Cacao’s chocolates. As a Christmas gift ,she gave me these two chocolate bars of theirs. Having been so long since I have had them I was super excited for this opportunity again. Will they live up to my memory though?

Praline Feuillete: Noix de Coco

This bar is described as white chocolate with a coconut hazelnut filling. The package keeps the chocolate nice and safe, with a thick clear plastic around the chocolate and a sturdy cardboard case. The bar is sectioned off with two chocolate squares per row, and it’s easily to break a piece off. You can easily see the filling through the beautiful white chooclate. Its smells creamy and extremely coconutty.

The flavor is very creamy and rich at first. You taste the sweet, buttery notes of the white chocolate and the richness of the hazelnuts right away. Then to coconut appears, it’s delicate, and completely authentic. You can even taste the texture of the flakes of dried coconut in there. The mixture of the flavors is very harmoniuos and amazingly delicious. I really wish I had a more of this bar as I practically inhaled it.

Praline feuillete “caramel beurre sale”:

This is the second bar I received as a gift. It’s a salted caramel with milk chocolate, if I’m reading that French correctly. The chocolate is a pretty color with a nice medium tone and a very high gloss to it. Very gorgeous to look and an unusually beautiful for a milk chocolate (which is usually more matte in color).

This has a layer of praline in it, and when you snap off a piece you can see the center that is sandwiched between the chocolate.

The flavor is first of the rich, smooth and flavorful milk chocolate. Then you feel the crispiness of the salted caramel, as they’re little pieces inside the praline. They’re flavorful, very buttery with a nice kick of salt. Then you taste the extremely flavorful richness of the gianduja filling. It’s very chocolaty and has wonderful notes of toasted hazelnuts. Just amazing.

I can’t express properly how amazing delicious and incredible this chocolate it. It is beyond words delicious. I wish it was more readily available so I could have more of it (well, maybe not a good idea, I don’t want to put 300lbs on in a week) and so that other have the opportunity to taste something so good. If you ever stumble across their stuff, I recommend buying it, it’s something you won’t regret.